Starting with Low-Cost, High-Impact Strategies Get Results

January, 2009
Larisa Ortiz, Principal
258 comments

It seems appropriate to be talking about Barack this week. Let’s take a moment to reflect on the campaign and another interesting lesson learned. The Obama team made a critical, early decision to go after small caucus states where Clinton did not have a presence and the cost to the campaign per-delegate vote was very low. The impact, however, was felt far and wide, and gave the campaing a credibility to forge new alliances and raise more money. Winning Iowa significantly changed the race dynamics in a way that made more people believe it was possible for him to win. And as a result, more people signed on. This is a powerful lesson for our commercial districts.

I once heard Kennedy Smith, the former Director of the National Main Street Center tell an audience, when you start this work you have 20% of the people for you, 20% of the people against you, and the rest are just waiting to see. In this case, Iowa was the first part of that 20%…and made the rest of it possible.